Archives for May 2009

MP3 – iTunes A new Zune is on the way. It will feature high definition video and HD Radio, a multi-touch screen, plus Wifi and a Web browser. Microsoft has not announced a price for the Zune HD, which is due this autumn. Guest: Dwight Silverman

MP3 – iTunes Sonoma County, California winery Murphy-Goode is seeking a blogger/tweeter to hang with winemaker David Ready for six months. The Murphy-Goode lifestyle correspondent will write about wine making and promote the company on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Wanna-be wine bloggers are submitting 60-second videos to promote their candidacies. Applications for the Read more →

The Obama administration has launched Data.gov, a much-anticipated site where citizens can download raw data from federal agencies. The idea is to encourage programmers and others to make new applications and mashups based on information from such agencies as the National Weather Service, the Census Bureau, the U.S. Geological Survey and the National Center for Health Statistics.

In a research paper being presented at a computer security symposium in Oakland, California today, researchers from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University argue that secret question mechanisms are insecure. The study involved 130 people who use Web mail services from Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL, all of which have secret questions for password recovery.

Last week the Obama administration promised to strengthen antitrust enforcement as a means to deal with powerful companies. That would make the U.S. more aligned with the European Union, which last week fined chip maker Intel $1.45 billion for abusing its market power.

Technology companies such as AT&T, IBM and Microsoft have been the biggest antitrust targets for the government over the past several decades. In many ways, the most dominant tech firm now is Google, which is already under some scrutiny by the Justice Department. Last year the company abandoned a search partnership with Yahoo after the government threatened an antitrust lawsuit. And this year the government has opened two separate inquiries — one for Google’s book scanning project, the other related to Google sharing board members with Apple.

Will the government make Google a major antitrust target going forward? Possible but not likely, according to University of Iowa law school professor Herbert Hovenkamp.

For the last year or so it’s looked very much liked the inexpensive, small computers known as “netbooks” were poised to storm the marketplace. But according to Future Tense news analyst Dwight Silverman, netbooks have hit a roadblock.

Online classified ad site Craigslist is dropping its controversial “erotic services” category — but adding a new one called “adult services” in which all ad submissions will be screened before they’re posted.

MP3 – iTunes A team of scientists at Yahoo Research studied the time of day that 125,000 students at U.S. and European universities sent e-mail. Yahoo research scientist Duncan Watts says people fall into one of two groups — “day laborers” and “emailholics.” Also mentioned today: Baiting Nigerian Scammers For Fun (Ars Technica) 10 Ways Read more →

MP3 – iTunes California prison authorities confiscated 2800 cell phones from inmates last year – double the number the year before. And now a proposal being debated in California would make it a crime for the state’s approximately 170,00 inmates to possess cell phones and for people to sneak them into prisons. Right now cell Read more →